Is Billy Graham considered a heretic by the standards of the Southern Baptist Convention? After his wife’s death, Graham stated that she was in Heaven and that he could not wait to join her. But doesn’t the Southern Baptist Convention believe that salvation comes from God’s gift of grace and that it is not earned and that nobody can know if someone else has been saved? Was Billy Graham chastised for claiming to know his wife was in Heaven?
Everybody’s a heretic in somebody’s eschatology.
All I know, as an atheist, is that Billy Graham is one of the good guys.
I respect Billy Graham.
I think Christians quite often speak of their late loved ones as awaiting them in Heaven, and I have never heard of any church discouraging the practice, whatever its statements of doctrine might say.
From here.
If he had a reasonable belief that she had done this (and it seems that he did) then there would be no problem in stating his belief that she was now in heaven. I spent a number of years in similar churches and that sort of sentiment was common about those that had died.
As was already said, Graham was by and large considered one of the good guys. He seems to have possibly been one of the very few honest ones who did not line his own pockets from church “profits”. As far as what any (probably) self serving bible thumping fire breathing wild eyed preacherman says, I don’t think Billy did or said anything wrong on this subject. He seemed to have faith not just in “his” God, but also in the basic goodness of his fellow man.
Wow. Isn’t THAT just what christianity is supposed to be all about???
Leave Billy alone. He is one of the honest, true-blue ones. I was Southern Baptist in the early years of my life, and you don’t know what you are talking about. It was perfectly ok to say someone was in Heaven if they believed in Jesus, which I am sure she did. I heard it all the time.
SBC doctrine emphasizes that assurance of salvation is part of God’s gracious gift. In fact, SBC doctrine includes “Eternal Security”- that someone who has truly been reborn in Christ cannot lose his/her salvation. This produces some Biblical & logical dilemnas & I don’t agree with it.
Billy Graham IS considered a heretic by some fundies for his outreach to & acceptance of the Catholic Church & mainline “liberal” Protestant churches, and for being open to the possibility that God may save some who have not accepted Christ under certain circumstances. And some SBC’ers may be among that group.
I thought the only person’s salvation you were supposed to be sure of was your own. Is that incorrect?
Depends.
You seem to think that the baptists are monolithic. They’re not.
Some are Arminian in nature, some are Calvinist.
I dunno. There’s this dress that kaylasmom wears sometimes that really does a lot for my salivation.
He might be considered an apostate. But nothing as extreme as a heretic.
Even if that were true, couldn’t Mrs. Graham have been sure of her own salvation, and couldn’t she have told Billy so, and couldn’t he have believed her?
Isn’t an apostate about the same thing as a heretic?
I’ve never heard of any Christian funeral service, in any denomination, where the priest or minister doesn’t as much as assure the bereaved audience that their loved one is with God.
Not necessarily. An apostate is one who has departed from the faith, while a heretic is one who professes the faith but holds to a radically different doctrine than is commonly accepted. The issue is confused by those who profess the faith but depart from very significant doctrines, such as a Christian cleric who denies the unique Divine Sonship of Jesus, His sacrificial death & bodily resurrection, and even a traditional Theistic understanding of God, and yet still professes to be a Christian & retains his ministerial office.